1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a grommet which is used to protect a wire harness in an extending-through portion formed in a vehicle body or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a vehicle body such as a dash panel, a cowl panel and the like, there is formed an opening through which a wire harness consisting of a plurality of wires tied up together in a bundle can be inserted.
Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 14, when a wire harness 7 is inserted through an opening 91, after a grommet C formed of a rubber ring is inserted into the wire harness 7, the wire harness 7 and grommet C are pulled together from a vehicle room side toward an engine room side so that the grommet C can be mounted into the opening 91. This is to protect the wire harness 7 by the grommet C and also to prevent water from leaking into the vehicle room.
FIG. 15 shows a state in which the grommet C is mounted on and fitted with an opening edge 92 of a mating member 9, and in a burring 93 in which the grommet C takes a stand-up position perpendicular to the mating member 9, the grommet C is well fitted with the opening edge 92.
However, in recent years, the number of parts to be provided in the engine room and vehicle room have increased and thus the cowl panel and the like have been inclined in order to avoid such increased parts, whereas the direction of forming the opening 91 (that is, the opening molding direction) has been left unchanged, so that the stand-up position or attitude of the burring 93 has failed to be perpendicular to the panels. As a result, the burring 93 has been inclined and projected toward the engine room side. As shown in FIG. 12, the angle of inclination .theta. of the burring 93 varies in the range of 0-20 degrees although the inclination angle .theta. depends upon the kinds of vehicles. Under these conditions, if the grommet C is mounted, then there is produced a gap S in a mounting groove 11 fitted with the opening edge of the mating member as shown in FIG. 16, which inconveniently leads to the leakage of water into the vehicle room.
Further, the wire harness 7 is normally disposed in such a manner that it is extremely bent from around the exit of the grommet C, as indicated by arrows in FIGS. 15 and 16, and this bending further expands the gap S, with the result that water more easily leaks into the vehicle room. In addition, the plane area of the grommet C existing around the opening 91 and corresponding to the mating member 9 has a tendency to decrease, and even if there is provided in the outer edge of the mounting groove 11 an annular projection P for sealing, a gap M easily appears between the mating member 9 and the annular projection P, with the result that the annular projection P is often found not useful, as shown in FIG. 15.
Moreover, in recent years, in order to prevent water from leaking through gaps between the wires which cooperate together in forming the wire harness, a filler has been loaded into the grommet. However, if the filler of this kind is loaded into the grommet, the portion of the grommet that holds the filler is then stiffened too much to be bent. Therefore, if the wire harness is so disposed as to be bent, the above-mentioned gaps S and M are expanded further.